My addiction to the Dodgers and baseball. I love Our Lady of Chavez Ravine (OLOCR) Dodger Stadium. If you come to Dodger Stadium, I'd love to show you around.SABR & Baseball Reliquary member

Spring Training 2010: More Pictures

Congratulations to Andre Ethier who had his number (#14) retired by his alma mater, Saint Mary’s High School, Wednesday at Phoenix. Tommy Lasorda was there in addition to Rick Monday who emceed the event.

My friend took this picture of me with my Andre shirt.

Too many people here, let’s walk to the Dodgers Minor league area:

Here is Elisa and I walking where the minor leaguers practice.

And no Bailey! I am not willing to trade Ethier from my baseball fantasy team “Locos Azules”!

I love my Shape-up shoes!

Game underway and Kemp little fans waiting to see if they can get a baseball

Maybe this guy drove all night to get to Camelback Ranch. We nicknamed him Sleeping Beauty. People kept coming by taking pictures with him or thowing peanuts aming for his mouth.

But Sleeping Beauty was wide awake the following day with this sign, except he was blocking our view. I yelled “Hey! you are blocking home plate” “Go back to sleep instead” to which the fans around laughed and applauded. Everyone remember the guy from the day before.

Speaking of signs, here is the familiar sign Dodgers see at other ballparks

I like this sign better and I love the rainbow! Sign reads “is not about how you start. It is about how you finish.” picture taken while we were driving.

Here is another picture of the rainbow taken over the window of the car. There was a double rainbow but is hard to see here.

Padilla has been named the starter for the Opener at Pittsburgh and Kershaw the Opener at Dodger Stadium! Congratulations guys! I can’t wait to watch you pitch!

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36 Comments

Emma, great pics! The whole facility looks so nice, with all the trees and grass along the walkways. Funny shot of the guy sleeping – man, I bet he had a sore neck when he woke up! Finally got the rest of my ST entry up – please check it out when you have a chance.
SueRants, Raves, and Random Thoughts

Hey Emma,
I loved all the pics! Looks like you had a great time. I love Ethier, is he your fav Dodger too?
I’m excited for the opening day match up! You’ll get to see the Pirates come to LA end of April.
Sucks I only ge tto see the Dodgers at the begining of the season. Hopefully i make a trip out to LA in the summer to catch a few!
Kristyhttp://kristylovesherbuccos.mlblogs.com/

Jane,
Isn’t that a great sign and a good omen too!
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Jeff,
My friend “Juana Soo Hoo” takes great pictures! she learned from the best Jon Soo Hoo. I gave her that name.
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Kristy,
I loved my time in Arizona. Wish I could go this weekend. Ethier is one of my favorites! I too are excited about the matchp. I’ll be looking for your report on the Opener.

Come please! I really want Andre!!!! He is like me uncle twice removed or something (seriously, I talked to him at spring training and our families are from the same spot in Canada). I will give anything and at this point toss in a reliever and a bench guy and I might trade Ryan Howard.

Mike!
I love the name too! Locos Azules! Sound wild! lol.
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Matt,
They just love to chant that in San Francisco and also in San Diego. Next Thursday is the first game at Dodger Stadium. Exhibition game with the Tribe!
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Bob, Bob, Bob,
How could I trade one of favorite players?
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Peter,
I can’t believe you still have snow! Wow! I cracked when I read that comment about Padilla starting. Hey! he is very happy and hopefully he will have a great year with the Blue!
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Randy!
When I saw how they flashed that at Snotsdale (I like that!), I rolled my eyes and took the pic.

Thanks Wetfeet!
Oh, so far I’ve seen good things from Padilla. I saw an interview with him in Spanish and he seemed a little shy instead. We will see what happens.
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Mimi!
Long time no see Mimi! I too was surprised but I love that Kershaw will be the Opening Day pitcher AT HOME! What could be better than listening to Vin Scully broadcast the game pitched by Kershaw. See, Vin does not travel no further than Colorado.

Hey Emma!
Well, we just came back from our vacation and our first trip to Camelback! We were there weekend before last (Friday 3/19 – Monday 3/22). Yes, the four games where the Dodgers lost all four games. 😦 Oh well, we still had a great time and would trade it for the world! I loved being so close to our Boys in Blue!!! I got my autographs (not as many as I would’ve liked) but I did. I got Andre’s and was able to talk to him for a little bit! My mom got his autograph too and was able to talk to him too! I also got autographs from Blake DeWitt, Russ Martin, Rick Honeycutt, and Charlie Steiner. I was looking for Josh Rawitch all weekend, but never did run into him. Too bad; I wanted my mom to meet him. Maybe next time.

CP!
You are back! Well, my record for the games i went to was One win, 2 losses and a cancelled game. Glad you had a great time! I am glad that you got your authographs and one of Andre AND you talked to him! Maybe your mom and you can run into Josh at the stadium. When is your next game at Dodger Stadium? I can’t wait to be there this Thursday! Woohoo!!

Emma – Yes, being at Camelback was great! We were pleasantly surprised when we found out that Camelback doesn’t charge for parking! So we got to go back and forth between workouts and games several times a day and not have to pay for parking all the time! That was great! We did enjoy ourselves. Yes, would’ve been nice if the Dodgers could have won a game we were at, but hey, it’s ST. I forgot to say something else. Not only did I get a chance to talk to Andre, but on our last day there, I said a few words to Josh Lindblom. I saw him pitch on Saturday night (I think it was Saturday night) and he did a TERRIFIC job! I think he was kinda surprised that someone actually recognized him and called out his name! I thought that was cool! And as far as our next game? Well, my mom and I will be there for the home opener! Yes, I REALLY wished we ran into Josh.

Raysfanboy,
Thanks! Yeah, you should have seen that guy. Everyone kept coming around with their camera putting their head close to his to take a picture. It was hilarious that whatever they were throwing to him, it would not wake him. The usher was concern but his buddies just told her that he was asleep. Thursday night I will be at Dodger Stadium!
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Yankeeholics,
The best time I had at Vero Beach were at workouts!
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CP!
That is great that you got to talk to Lindblom and that he appreciated that! I got a nice rooklie card from him. Hey! let’s keep in touch for Opening Day!
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Sure thing Emma! I’ll pick up my mom early and stop on by. I don’t know if you noticed, but on ITD, I left a note for Josh to see if he can stop by so my mom can meet him! I know he’s busy, especially on the home opener, but hey, if I never ask, I’ll never get! 🙂

CP,
I plan to get there early and go around greeting friends around that I have not seen since the end of the season. I’ll email you my number in case you need to get a hold of me.
I think your best bet with Josh is to get there early for BP and catch him as he is coming back from the dugout area or at the club level but like you said Opening Day, he will be extremely busy. I’ll help you see him. When is your next game with your mom?

After the home opener, not sure. We were both hoping that she’d have tickets for May 18 (AE’s bobblehead), but she doesn’t and her season ticket partner likes Andre too and wants his bobblehead too. So I’ll see if I can get tickets for the two of us for that game. If I’m able to get them, then that will probably be my next game, but not sure. I’ll let you know one way or the other…

I like your Ethier shirt. My father bought me a shirt with my last name on it but Ethier’s number for my birthday. He said watching Ethier a few years ago reminded him of when I played because we had a similar batting stance. Indeed Ethier’s my age, height, and left handed like me so I too saw a resemblance. Of course after I stopped playing baseball I just got fat so that’s where the comparison fades. It’s better that people like me quit and get fat and let the really talented players like Ethier carry the torch instead.😉

CP,
I am going to buy a ticket for another friend that loves Andre.
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Aducker,
I am glad that they make it in a women size. I get tired of wearing guys shirts. So the same batting stance and a lefty too! Hey so are you going to catch the Dodgers this year at a game on the road?

Last season was the first year I didn’t make it to a game since 2005 so that was a little disappointing. I’m unsure about this year but it’s not looking good.

I’ve got a chance to see the Nationals (1 hour) or the Phillies (45 minutes) close by but the timing of those series aren’t that great. I thought I might make it to Boston (6 hours) but that’s seeming more and more unlikely though not completely out of the picture yet.

I’ll be moving back to Arkansas before the season ends. That will limit me every year to pretty much only Cardinals games though I think I’ll miss that series this time around. That will be a nightmare considering how hard the Cardinals are against LA there every year. I hate going to 1 game a year only to see the Dodgers lose. It’s not a total wash but it sure is a lot more fun when they win. But who knows? Maybe after the NLDS last year the Dodgers reversed that STL curse? I hope so.

I say that I’m limited to STL but of course I can always drive 8 or 9 hours to Chicago to see the Dodgers against the Cubs or White Sox. Chicago is a great place to visit and I’d like to do it several more times in the next few years.

Aducker,
but you might get to see a good game. You might see Kershaw! You might see a no hitter. Ok, don’t listen to me. Hey! I hope we found the solution to beat those Cardinals! I think I mention to you that I was in St Louis for a four-game series and my Bums lost all four! Still, my friends in St Louis are just great great people, very down to earth. I can’t say enough of them. I have a picture with them when we met again during Spring Training in 2008.

I saw Kershaw pitch in Philly in 2008. He looked great for a while but didn’t have his best stuff and the Dodgers lost. That was the least of my trouble that day.
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The Philly Phanatic kicked my wife in the head on the way down the seats while I was away getting some veggie hot dogs. I did see Russell Martin hit a 2 run homer that day but when I cheered I was threatened by Phillies fans who said one more cheer and I would get beer on me. Then a Phillies fan cussed out a Dodger fan near me and got red in the face from being too drunk. So yeah, that was the last live game I’ve seen. I’ve seen tons of great Phillies fans in this region. I’m just not sure where they were at that day when they left me with all the rotten fans…
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Plus to top it off it ended my streak of 9 games in a row I’d seen with a Dodger win (including that playoff clinching game in SF in 2006 that you and I were both at). I need to get to a game this year so I can start a new streak.

Wow Aducker! that was a bad experience with the Phillie phans and Philly Phanatic. I know Sue, Jen and Peter who have mlb blogs are good Phillie phans. Like you said, the bad ones came out when you went to the game.
Still can’t believe you were at the playoff clinching game in SF in 2006 when I was there! That was so much fun! YEs! Start a new winning streak! You deserved one!

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